Tag: Crafty Gemini

Yes! After YEARS I finally finished the Retreat Bag from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club. WooHoo! I can’t tell you how excited I am to cross this one off my list.

Why? I think, mostly, I am glad to have it done. I have not found a bag yet that I am SUPER excited to use and this is no exception. I hope that it will be a good bag to use, but I am not optimistic. Sad but true.

The inside uses that fabulous Brocade Peony fabric from Philip Jacobs. I LOVE* that fabric. I have a lot of it, because I love and have used it quite a bit, but have never found the exact perfect project for it. I’ll keep looking.

As you can see (and I partially showed before), this bag has three interior sections. The top section is divided into three pockets. The middle section is open with pockets on the edges to hold a long ruler and other long things. The bottom is a mesh pocket. The mesh pocket is the one I sewed on upside down and had to rip out.

As soon as I finished the bag, I tried the ruler pocket, because I like that idea. Predictably, it is not sized well for Creative Grids  6.5 inch x 24.5 inch rulers.** I was able to get the ruler into both pockets, which holds it very well. It wasn’t easy to get it in and getting it out meant straining the pocket seam almost to ripping. As you know, Creative Grids rulers are half an inch longer than most Omnigrids rulers and that half inch makes all the difference in this project.

Now, I should have known that this would be a problem and constructed the pockets differently. If I were to make this bag again, I might make one of the center pockets a flap with Velcro.** This would mean that I could slip the ruler into the top, then press the flap over the rest of the ruler. I’ll have to look at that pocket and see if I can still do that. I have an Omnigrid 24 inch ruler**, but I almost never use it. Frankly, it probably doesn’t matter as the long ruler I bring with me to Sew Day is the Karen Kay Buckley Adjustable ruler**. It is less likely to get broken in transit, because it breaks down into 4-5 pieces. Really, I don’t even really need this pocket.  Again, I should have thought about that in advance. It is possible that I could remove the “ruler pockets” and add another zipper pocket to the center  even with the binding already stitched down. If I don’t do something, then that center area is just wasted space.  Bleah!

The zipper pocket will, I hope be useful. It will definitely be more useful made out of vinyl than it would have been made out of fabric. The “out of sight out of mind” adage is alive and well in my life.

I think dividing it into three was a good move even though I can’t put larger items into it. I think packing a large pocket full would have made it misshapen eventually. I am not sure what I will use this bag for, so that could also never have happened.

The mesh pocket is one large space. The problem described above might happen below. Oh well. I don’t want to worry about it until I have to worry about it.

I like how the white mesh works with my Brocade Peony fabric. I can still see the design, but it tones down the Brocade Peony colors (motifs?) just a little.

In general, this pattern was pretty straightforward to put together. It was on my list for 1,000 years, because I just didn’t get around to it. As is usual with Crafty Gemini patterns, the written instructions are very basic and, for me, almost unusable. There are no pictures, because the videos that come with the Clubs and projects are very detailed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*What is it with me and CAPITAL letters today?

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

I had to clear the Retreat Organizer off the design wall, which encouraged me to start working on it. I made small amounts of progress after work each night last week. I feel well into now and was sad not to be able to work on it yesterday.

First, I was on the hardware step, so I added buckles and made straps. In the photo above (left) I have the female side of the buckles attached to the exterior. On the right you can see the male side of the buckles with the straps attached, but not attached to the exterior of the bag.

In this pattern, the straps are appliqued to the exterior not appliqued and sewn into a seam.

I also worked a little on the interior. This is one large pocket that has been divided into three.

This was originally supposed to be a fabric pocket. For me, out of sight is out of mind, so I made the pocket(s) out of vinyl. I put some fold over elastic** over the edge to avoid looking a raw edge.

On the picture you can see some tape and tissue paper, both of which I used to sew the dividing lines on the vinyl. These are pockets you could customize. I almost left one big pocket, but decided even a vinyl pocket might become a black hole of doom.

This project is off the design wall, which is great, but it is now spending most of its time on my ironing board. I really need a larger work table.

You can find this pattern with all of the videos on the Crafty Gemini website as the Retreat-in-a-Bag project.

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

Yes, I made a start on the Crafty Gemini Retreat-in-a-Bag project. In the 26 Projects list, I call it the Retreat Organizer. It doesn’t look like much because it is only two large pieces of fabric sandwiched together with Soft & Stable**.

I stopped working on it so I could finish Christmas gifts and haven’t gotten back to it yet. This may be the oldest bag ever. I really have to finish it.

In addition to Christmas gifts, I was also stalled because I was trying to decide whether to embellish the webbing like I did with the handles for the All Rolled Up bag. I finally decided just to finish the %$#@ bag. once I get back to it, I will just put the webbing handles on as is. If I decide to make another one, then I’ll think about embellishing the handles. I am not sure fancy webbing was available in 2018 when I bought the kit. Now, I can choose from Tula Pink webbing and the various webbing offered by Sew Hungry Hippie. I am sure a lot of other places have fun webbing as well.

One of the things about this project is that very large pieces of fabric and foam have to be cut. With my small cutting table, it is a big challenge. I could have used the dining room table, but didn’t think of it at the time.

Perhaps I’ll have time to work on this project next weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

I was pretty excited about this bag and my reward for hosting 27 people for Thanksgiving was working a project on which I really wanted to work. That is the Ultimate Project Bag.

I said in my previous post that there wasn’t much to cut out. That was true, but there is a lot of prep. I had to quilt it, but I took my lessons from when I visited Mary M and used the automatic cutting feature on my machine. OMG! even on my machine it makes a huge difference. I really don’t know why. Something about not having to pick up my snips, I guess.

The quilted piece is made up of lining, foam and exterior. Vanessa (Crafty Gemini) suggests quilting a big X over the whole piece. I didn’t want to do that, so I drew some random lines on the exterior.

Do I say that about all bags? The prep never gets easier. I know I said was Zen with it one time. I have to get that feeling back.

I didn’t really like the way Vanessa told me to make the handles, so I made them the way I usually make them. I cut the fabric 15×5 and folded the pieces into quarters the long way. I did put a piece of foam, which she suggested, inside and that was a good idea. I usually forget to do it. Now, the handles are nice and comfy.

I also worked on the zipper plackets. I am not excited about how she says to make the zipper plackets. As I have said, I like my zipper tape covered. Only part of the zipper tape is covered. Granted, you can’t see the tape, because it will be too high up, but still.

The pockets go over the lining. They are sewn down at the bottom and then the excess is trimmed. Vanessa goes into a long explanation about why she adds extra to the end of the mesh and vinyl. She just trims them and leaves the edges raw. I was a little shocked by this, but I don’t really like raw edges. I think what I would do next time is sew down the pocket on the top, then mark the spot on the vinyl or mesh where the piece will be topstitched, then trim and put doublefold elastic over the edge. Finally, I would sew that edge down. I am not sure if it would work, but the edge would be bound. I guess I have to figure out if the stitching line for the bottom of the pockets has any wiggle room.

I was able to get the mesh pocket sewn on. I worried the whole time I was working with mesh that everything I put in that pocket would get stuck in the mesh. If I make this project again, I can make two vinyl pockets.

As mentioned previously, this is one of the projects from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club. I find that some things don’t age well with these videos. For example, many people use Sew Tites** now, especially when working with vinyl. There is no mention of them in the video. I think they must have been released after, though I thought maybe it was at a QuiltCon in 2015 or 2016. I don’t know. If you make this project, definitely get some Sew Tites**.

I made good progress and will be able to finish soon. This isn’t a difficult project. I am a little angry at myself for not getting to it sooner.

You can still buy the club (no affiliation). Check out the video showing all the projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.